Mothercare aiming to match Amazon online

As Mothercare welcomes its new chief executive - former Lovefilm boss Simon Calver - later this month, chairman Alan Parker has said he expecting double digit growth from the retailer in online channels in the second half of 2012.

"We’ve got to be at least as good as Amazon online," he said. "We’ve got the right man to bring [online] back into growth. We expect double-digit [online] growth by the second half."

Earlier this month the maternity retailer announced further cuts to its store portfolio, losing 111 more shops - most of which will be toy focused Early Learning Centres. Parker believes the slack can be taken up by online.